Wednesday 12 May 2010

Rural life: spring rites



I was woken up in the very early hours of the morning, by loud animal cries down there in the garden.

I got out of bed and pulled up the blind. The sky was a field of stars, dense and speckled. But the outside world of the garden was totally dark to me.

The noises continued and eventually I could hear a mismatch that implied two animals crying out. I still had no idea what they were. Eventually the noise died down and I could hear the sound of an animal moving through the grasses and hedge - coming up towards the house.
And then the sound of another animal, a softer almost whimpering sound, that moved away in the opposite direction.

No doubt this was not a fight - but a mating. Maybe fox.
The other night I had heard a vixen calling out, down there in the garden.

Anyway it was vivid and alarming.

But this morning I kept thinking of the political courtship and "love rites" that took place yesterday. The politicians involved make like it's a marriage. But essentially it's a power grab and the tussle to establish a bloodline. Whatever - there are an awful lot of smug grins today.

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